


asofterworld ficlets

by yawwwrp



Category: Hockey RPF
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash, im a lazy tagger im sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-06
Updated: 2015-02-06
Packaged: 2018-03-10 19:10:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 35
Words: 11,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3300473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yawwwrp/pseuds/yawwwrp
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A couple handfuls of ficlets inspired by asofterworld comic strips.</p><p>In which there are movie dates, zombie plans, secret codes, ghosts, evil cats, pranks, big loves and friendship moments where you realize that maybe you're not all alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Alex Galchenyuk & Brendan Gallagher

**Author's Note:**

> All of this started because I love the comic strips on www.asofterworld.com which you should definitely check out if you don't know them already.
> 
> Because they make you sad in just the right way I had to resist writing angstfic after angstfic and eventually fell down the fluff pit once again.
> 
> I obviously suck at summaries so I'm sorry about that and also the incredible cheesy-ness in most of these.
> 
> Also: most of these ships don't have much fic so take this as a call to arms for all you guys to write more of those!

 

 

Alex hates everything. His new year's resolution had been something along the lines of „be nicer“, „be friendlier“, „be more open to meeting new people“, but he's trying real hard ok? It's just that people suck.

He's grocery shopping right now, which, again, he hates everything, especially shopping, and other people apparently did not make being nicer their new year's resolution. Some girl cuts him off with her shopping cart, an older lady takes the last box of Alex's favourite cereal and Alex crashed his cart into at least four others so far because the store is packed. Reminding himself to be nicer, he smiles at everyone he inconveniences, apologizes in a very friendly voice, at least in his opinion, and what does he get for all his troubles? Absolutely nothing but annoyed glances and a few „watch out, asshole“. Canadians were supposed to be friendly.

Alex huffs and rounds the corner of the shelves stocked with canned soups to bump into yet another shopper. „I'm sorry.“, Alex tries again and gives a smile to the guy standing in front of him. The guy just glares at him and pushes his cart away from Alex.

„What a douche.“ Alex turns around to find Brendan standing behind him, two cans of Campbells in his hands. Brendan grins at him and walks over to him, thumping him on the shoulder. „Why are you so smiley, Chuckster?“

Alex sighs and watches Brendan drag his cart next to his own. „Trying to be more-“, he gestures with his hands in the air, „nice.“

Brendan just snorts out a laugh. „Not working so well for ya, eh?“ Alex shakes his head and Brendan pats him lightly on the back. „Fuck 'em, bud. Keep smiling.“ He turns a blinding smile on Alex and Alex feels like maybe it's not really all that important that he gets strangers to smile at him anyway.

 


	2. Jason Demers &  Tyler Seguin

 

Tyler thought him and Jason had a pretty great agreement. They were good friends, the sex was amazing, and they weren't hurting anyone. This morning though, Jason had burst into his apartment and seemed kind of riled up.

 

„Alright, I need coffee. Then we can talk.“, Tyler offered as Jason slumped down on his couch. When he came back with a mug of coffee for himself and a glass of water for Jason, he sunk down into his armchair and watched Jason expectantly. „What's up?“

 

Jason sighed heavily and looked down to his lap where he was kneading his fingers. „So, like. This thing. We have.“

 

Tyler had a little trouble swallowing his coffee at that. They'd never actually talked about their whole thing. It just started and yeah, they might not go on dates or whatever, but they hung out. You know. Like bros do.

 

Jason looked up at him before continuing. „I think I'm in love.“ Tyler gasped a little under his breath and Jason quickly put his arms up. „Not with you!“ He grimaced a little. „Sorry.“

 

Tyler shrugged even though he didn't really know what to feel. „O-kay. So.“ He put his mug on the coffee table and leaned back in the chair again. „Who is it?“

 

There was a long moment where Jason kind of wrestled with himself about whether or not to tell Tyler, but eventually he answered him, face red, not meeting his gaze. „It's someone from our team.“

 

„Say what now?“

 

Jason nodded. „It's uhm. It's. Jordie.“ Tyler looked at him with a surprised face.

 

„Look, dude, I. You know I love you right? I mean, you're one of my closest friends. But this was like. We're not like. Dating. Or anything.“ He smiled a little. „And I happen to know for a fact that someone else on our team would be more than happy to take up my current job. With feelings.“

 


	3. Michael Latta & Tom Wilson

 

 

„There's a huge fucking spider in the bathtub, fuck, fuck, _fuuuuck_ , help me, Latts“, Tom comes running to him as soon as Mike enters the apartment.

 

„What the fuck, dude?“ Tom basically rips off Mike's coat, which would definitely be a great course of action to start the rest of the day, but then he shoves Mike in the direction of the bathroom, cowering behind his back.

 

„It's gigantic and super gross and please make it gone!“

 

„You're a fucking child.“ Mike grabs some toilet paper and squishes the ,pretty small actually, spider. Tom lets out an exaggerated sigh and fake-swoons.

 

„My hero.“

 

After sending the „spider corpse of evil“ off to its last journey down the toilet, Mike turns to the now grinning Tom.

 

„You would be fine streaking through half the town but you're scared of a spider?“ He threads his fingers through Tom's hair and raises an eyebrow at him.

 

Tom just snorts and kisses him. „You keep telling me I'm too pretty for my own good, maybe I want everyone to get a ticket to the Tom Wilson show.“

 

Mike just bites down on his bottom lip before letting go and leaning back a little. „Oh, _hell_ no.“


	4. Jamie Benn & Tyler Seguin

 

 

Wins are awesome. That's pretty much self-explanatory. And the Stars just had a huge win, so that was awesome, obviously. The team's celebrating at a steak bar and Jamie's kind of sandwiched between Tyler and Jordie, who are trying to get Rous to teach them how to insult people in french. Across from him, the rookies are arguing about some tv show that Jamie has honest to god never heard about, and everyone's in a great mood.

 

After they've eaten, Jamie gets a little food-drowsy and lists to Tyler's side a little, who just smiles at him and continues his conversation about dogs with Moen. Jamie kind of half-listens to everyone around him and enjoys Tyler's warmth next to him, his teammates joking around, Jordie doing a absolutely hilarious impressions of coaches and sighs contentedly.

 

About an hour and two beers later, someone tries to convince everyone to go to some new bar in town. Jamie doesn't really know who came up with the idea and he doesn't really feel like going out anyway. He figures he's done his captainly duties for the day and squeezes Tyler's thigh under the table to get his attention.

 

„You going out with the guys?“, Jamie asks and Tyler gives him a quick once over before shaking his head.

 

„Nah. I'll drive you.“

 

Jamie's about to protest because he's still totally good to drive and Tyler can go out without him, honestly, but Tyler just smiles and tells the guys he's gonna head home.

 

Jordie taps Jamie slightly on the arm and gives him a look. „Are you off too?“

 

Jamie nods. „Yeah. Have fun guys, see you at practice.“

 

It's still warm outside, when Tyler and Jamie go out to the parking lot and Tyler slips his hand into Jamie's to intertwine their fingers.

 

„Whatever happened to go big or go home, eh?“ And Jamie can tell it's a rhethorical question when Tyler squeezes his hand and grins at him.


	5. Patrick Kane & Jonathan Toews

 

 

Pat wakes up to his annoying alarm and Jonny draped around him like he's a god damn octopus. He sleepily wonders if Red Wings fans might one day throw him on the ice and turns off the alarm.

 

„Get up, Jonny.“ He presses a quick kiss to Jonny's furrowed brows and tries to slide out of bed, but is stopped by Jonny's arm pulling him back in.

 

Jonny squints at him through half opened eyes and grumbles a little bit.

 

„You gotta actually use words, man. Not a telepath. Yet.“

 

Jonny sighs and closes his eyes again, pulling Pat a little closer to himself. „Don' wanna get up.“

 

Pat shuffles a little closer to Jonny and rests his forehead on Jonny's chest, skin warm from sleep. „Well, we gotta get up, though.“

 

Jonny sighs again. „Wanna stay in bed, though. Alllll day.“ He draws out his words and yawns a little. „With you.“, he adds belatedly. Pat takes a moment to smile against Jonny and it takes a lot more willpower than he expected to look at him with a determined, serious face when he moves away from Jonny.

 

„Sounds amazing, babe. But that's what the offseason's for, right? So we gotta get up now.“

 

He half-heartedly tries to tug the blankets away from Jonny who just mutters something about getting beavers to kill Pat if he doesn't let go of the blankets.

 

Pat smiles all the way to the coffee machine and when Jonny stumbles into the kitchen a few minutes later he holds out a mug to him and grins. „Made it out here alive, I see.“

 

Jonny grunts and proceeds to drink his coffee in silence. When he's done, he wraps his arms around Pat's waist, face squished against Pat's neck. „Still wanted to stay in bed with you, though.“

 


	6. Brandon Bollig & Andrew Shaw

 

 

Andrew's definitely not lonely. Nope. Not at all. He didn't look up pets for sale on craigslist the other day and he definitely didn't watch eight different romcoms last weekend. He didn't.

 

The thing is just, since Brandon got traded, he might be a tiny little bit lonely. Like really just a teensy tiny bit.

 

There are jokes to tell and bars to drink at and pranks to pull. There's also glorious amounts of sex to be had which they unfortunately never got to because he never told Brandon about his huge ass man crush on him.

 

So now he's heading out onto the ice for practice with Saader, who tells him a story about one of his weird neighbours and he's kind of pissed off. Because this? Not fair. Tazeer and Kaner get to make googly eyes at eachother all day long, Duncs and Seabs are more married than his parents and Sharpy gets more love from his reflection in the mirror than Andrew gets from anyone.

 

He spends practice being mad at everything from drills to Bicks' face to the ice and himself. They're heading into the all star weekend break and all he really wants to do is go home, eat ice cream and watch the sequel to that Bridget Jones movie.

 

He's so caught up in play-wrestling Seabs in the locker room that he doesn't expect Saader throwing his phone at him.

 

„Dude, your phone's been ringing for ages, just pick up or set your ringtone to something that isn't Carly Rae Jepsen. It's 2015, man.“

 

Andrew snappy retort dies in his throat when he picks up and hears Brandon across the line. „Shawz, my boy! What's up?“

 

They do smalltalk for a couple minutes, a few guys from the team grabbing his phone every now and then to say hi.

 

When Andrew's got his phone back, Brandon chuckles. „Nice of you to be so selfless with your phone but I gotta board the plane now. You gonna pick me up at the airport? I'll send you my ETA.“


	7. Patrick Kane & Jonathan Toews

 

 

Breakups are always tough, but Patrick feels like dying every. single. Time.

 

He spent the latter half of the offseason wallowing in self-pity and feels slightly better now that he's back in Chicago, weeks away from training camp and preseason games.

 

It always feels a little weird to him, being back in the city before the next season starts. He feels a little like everything's possible. It kind of is, but still.

 

Jonny gets in touch with him a day after he arrives and in true fashion, doesn't really give him an option to say no to his dinner invitation.

 

„Look, I bought this new grill and everyone's busy. Literally everyone. So come over tomorrow at seven okay?“ Pat hears something clatter in the background through the phone. „Bring wine.“

 

Which is how Pat finds himself standing in front of Jonny's door at 7pm sharp with a bottle of red wine in his hand. Jonny smiles wide when he opens the door and gestures him in, taking the bottle from his hand and telling him to make himself comfortable on the deck.

 

When they're done with their food, Pat leans back in his chair to look out over Chicago's skyline in the night. Jonny whacks him lightly with his arm and grins.

 

„Feelin' better?“

 

„About what?“

 

Jonny cringes a little. „I heard about the breakup. Sorry.“

 

Pat hums and looks over at him, face flushed from the heat of the grill and maybe from the wine as well, small smile on his lips. „It's fine.“

 

„Yeah?“

 

Pat smiles back at him and raises his glass. „Yeah. To better things.“


	8. Jake Gardiner & Morgan Rielly

 

 

At some point in the last year, Morgan and Jake got super hooked on The Walking Dead. Like, completely addicted. They did marathons whenever they could and were pretty sure every single one of their teammates was annoyed to hell and back by their zombie talk by now.

 

It was a cold Sunday afternoon when they watched last weeks episode, Jake sprawled out on the couch, Morgan curled up on the side, head resting on Jake's shoulder.

 

„Would you team up with me?“, Jake asks during a quiet scene.

 

„What?“

 

Jake sits up quickly giving Morgan, who grumbles because his pillow is now gone, a challenging look. „Would you team up with me in a zombie apocalypse?“

 

Morgan snorts and grabs one of the throw pillows to prop his head up. „Is that a hypothetical question?“

 

„No the zombies are right outside your door.“, Jake deadpans. „Of course it's hypothetical.“

 

Morgan shrugs and turns his attention away from Jake and back to the tv. „Dunno.“

 

Jake squawks. „ _Dunno_? What the hell, man?“ He crosses his arms but when Morgan doesn't say anything further, he just lies back down again, prompting Morgan to push away the pillow and settle back on Jake's shoulder. After a few moments, Jake sighs as Rick Grimes stabs a walker. „You'd be on my team.“

 

„Hm?“

 

„You'd be on my zombie apocalypse team, even if I'm not on yours.“ Jake pauses. „Would I really not be on yours?“

 

Morgan is quiet for a little while before curling up a little more against Jake. „Maybe.“


	9. Alex Galchenyuk & Brendan Gallagher

 

 

Alex and Brendan got into a fight. They argue a lot, about pretty meaningless things, but they never actually have a huge fight. So when Alex storms out of the apartment, Brendan feels furious and then really sad.

 

They'd been talking about the Malhotra kids because they picked up their dad today and somehow the conversation turned into Brendan gushing about kids and Alex getting increasingly annoyed and- oh. Okay, maybe Brendan can see his mistake now. Talking about kids for two hours when you haven't even told your boyfriend of like, five months, that you love him yet, might be a tad too much.

 

Brendan slumps down on one of the stools at the counter and puts his head in his hands. Okay, so Alex probably thinks Brendan doesn't care about their relationship or whatever, or thinks he's immature, or that he doesn't want him. All of these things are incorrect. Safe for the immature maybe, so what if he still has a box of legos they're totally for his nephews and nieces ok.

 

The thing is though, that Brendan does like Alex. Like a lot. And he cares about their relationship, even though he does not want to call it a relationship ever. So maybe he has some commitment issues, fine. He didn't know Alex was so into this whole thing.

 

Love is like, a huge thing. A very very big deal. And Brendan doesn't like the weight the word carries, and that's why he's never said it before. Maybe some part of him deep down is actually worried that if he said it, Alex wouldn't say it back. As he thinks more about it though, he realizes that even before they started dating, Alex and him have been pretty, you know, in love. He can't really imagine sitting on his couch in front of the tv in ten years with anyone else but Alex. And huh. Maybe that's exactly what love is.

 

He's up and off the stool in a second and opens the door to rush out and find Alex, just to bump into Alex standing on his doormat.

 

„Hey.“ Alex looks sheepish. „Sorry I stormed out. I just-“

 

„I love you.“ Brendan's heart skips a beat when Alex just looks at him with wide eyes.

 

Alex breaks out of his trance and surges forward to press their lips together. „I love you too.“

 


	10. Jake Gardiner & Morgan Rielly

 

 

Jake and Morgan have fish. Or more specifically, Morgan has fish. Jake didn't really notice them at first, but one day when he burst into Morgan's room to ask him for his copy of Shutter Island, there was a huge fishtank sitting on Morgan's dresser, way too big for the two tiny black and blue fish swimming in it.

 

„The hell is that?“

 

Morgan looked up from where he was trying to grab a t-shirt from underneath his bed. „That's a fishtank.“

 

Jake rolled his eyes. „Thanks, Captain Obvious. Since when do you have fish?“

 

Morgan shrugged and got up off the floor. He gestured at the fish in the tank. „That's Sergio, I got him like two weeks ago. And that's Marty, I got him yesterday.“

 

After a while, Jake figured out a system. You know how people have coping mechanisms? Well, Morgan's way to cope with bad losses was to buy fish. Jake figured he was lonely or whatever, even tried to cheer him up with snacks and bad movies but Morgan just acted his usual self and so Jake just thought _fuck it. It's just fish._

 

Shit kind of hits the fan when they don't make the playoffs though. Morgan has an impressive amount of fish at this point and one evening he just storms into the apartment with a big box in his arms.

 

Jake glances up from his mac and cheese and gestures at the box with his fork. „'s that?“

 

Morgan rolls his eyes and walks into his room, throwing a „chew before you speak!“ over his shoulder. Jake follows Morgan into his room and sees him take a tiny black kitten out of the box.

 

„Mo, what the _fuck_?!“

 

Morgan turns to him with wide eyes. „Shit, sorry, are you allergic?“

 

Jake shakes his head. „No. But what the fuck, man? You already got like a bajillion fish-“

 

„Not a number.“

 

„-and now a cat?!“

 

The tiny kitten waddles over to Jake's legs and puts its paws on top of his feet.

 

„Are you mad?“

 

Jake sighs and picks the kitten up. „No, but. Maybe we should talk about this next time, yeah?“

 

Morgan nods. „Sure, yeah. Okay.“

 

The kitten is adorable. Super adorable. The absolute cutest thing they have ever seen. They spend the better part of the afternoon playing with it in the living room until it falls asleep on Morgan's chest. Jake strokes a finger slightly over its head and gives Morgan a sympathetic look.

 

„Why did you buy a kitten, Mo?“ Morgan pushes Jake's hand away to replace it with his own. He stays silent until Jake flops down next to him. „You can't just buy a pet whenever you're feeling down.“

 

„I know.“

 

Jake hums. „So. Find a new way to cheer yourself up.“

 

Morgan turns to look at him with a helpless expression. „Like what?“

 

Jake just smiles and presses a soft kiss to his lips. „Like this?“

 


	11. Michael Latta & Tom Wilson

 

 

It's 4am and Tom is super drunk. Mike and him had a house party and everyone was gone now, save for Schmidty who passed out on their couch.

 

Mike, who is definitely way more drunk than he seemed before their friends left, is currently trying to put empty cups into a trashbag, more swaying than standing upright and Tom's trying to figure out where he put his phone. Schmidty rolls over in his sleep and lets out a contented sigh, prompting Mike to let out a loud laugh before clamping his hand over his mouth so as not to wake his friend. Tom lends him a hand with the trash, the both of them quietly talking about the night, and by the time they're done, Mike is pretty much asleep on his feet and Tom basically manhandles him into his room. He just pushes him to his bed and goes to get a glass of water.

 

When he comes back, Mike's eyes are closed, a smile on his lips, fingers drumming out an irregular beat on his chest.

 

„Latts, you need to drink this.“, Tom kind of half-whispers and shakes Mike's shoulder a little. He sits up and takes the glass, gives Tom a dopey grin and chugs the water.

 

„You're good, ya know, Willy? Th' best.“, Mike slurs and almost slaps Tom in the face trying to touch his cheek. He smiles some more and Tom silently hates himself for falling not only for his teammate, but for his fucking roomie. Which means he's never ever gonna actually make a move on Mike because he can _not_ fuck up their friendship.

 

He sighs heavily and pats Mike's knee before taking the glass from him and making a move to stand up. Mike just grabs his arms and pulls him back down, which makes Tom lose his balance and fall mostly on top of Mike, basically tackling him to the bed.

 

„Y'should stay.“, Mike mumbles and buries his face against Tom's neck.

 

„Uh.“ Tom's heart is working overtime and Mike is a soft warmth beneath him, looking up at him with dazed eyes, biting his lip. He grins again before he moves closer and presses their lips together in an uncoordinated but sweet kiss.

 

Tom feels a little bit like he wants to scream but then Mike drops his head back down to the bed and smiles. „Stay.“


	12. Jake Gardiner & Morgan Rielly

 

 

Because they were the last to leave Toronto for the offseason, Morgan and Jake decided to take a boat out on some lake for a couple days before going home to visit friends and families. They rented a room at the hotel at the lake and spend the majority of the day just hanging out on the boat, sometimes fishing, with cold beers, a really shitty radio and some sandwiches.

 

„Two more days.“, Morgan sighed, sprawled out on deck to drink in the sun.

 

Jake chuckled and put away the fishing rod. „What, you getting sick of me already, Rielly?“ He honestly wondered why he constantly did this to himself, hang out with Morgan 24/7. Yeah, they live together and they play on the same team but he could've very well just started the summer alone instead of torturing himself by having to look at a relaxed and shirtless Morgan all day, every day.

 

He sat down next to Morgan, offering him a sip from his beer and looked out over the water. A little bit ahead of them, a smaller boat than theirs sailed by, laughter echoing across the water over to Jake and Morgan. Morgan took the beer and sat up a little to take a swig. „Nah, not yet.“ He smiled a little before lying back down again and putting his arms behind his head to pillow it. Jake sighed and briefly debated pushing Morgan off the boat into the water, but dropped the idea when he remembered that Morgan would actually be not only shirtless but also wet then.

 

„Don't even think about it.“, Morgan mumbled.

 

„What?“

 

„Don't even think about pushing me into the lake.“

 

Jake snorted. „I wasn't-“

 

„Yeah you were.“

 

They were quiet for a while until Jake lied down next to Morgan and looked up at the blue sky, dotted with little clouds.

 

„That one looks like Phil.“, Morgan laughed and pointed up at one that looked more like a tiny dinosaur to Jake.

 

Jake turned his head to look at Morgan, staring up at the sky, chattering about cloud shapes. Morgan eventually turned his head and gave Jake a look. „Something on my face? What are you looking at?“

 

Jake shook his head no and turned his gaze back to the sky. „Nothing. Just you.“

 


	13. Duncan Keith & Brent Seabrook

 

 

Seabs is suspended for a road trip. Duncs is pissed. The team is cautious to steer clear of him.

 

Duncs actually calls Seabs like every day at least once and from the way Seabs sounds, he's probably even more pissed off than Duncs. Team dinner's over and as soon as Duncs reaches his hotel room, he dials Seabs' number and waits for him to pick up.

 

„Hey.“ Duncs is about to turn the tv on when Seabs' voice comes through the line after the first ring.

 

„Hey. How are you doing?“, Duncs asks and decides to leave the tv off for now.

 

Seabs sighs. „Alright. You gonna kick their asses tomorrow?“

 

„For sure.“ Duncs sinks down on his bed and stares out the window. „Bad mood?“

 

Seabs grunts. „A little.“

 

Duncs hears a song in the background and starts humming along subconsciously, singing along some words here and there, until Seabs chuckles. „Are you serenading me, Duncs?“

 

Duncs just grins and sings louder, along to Seabs' laughter through the phone.


	14. Jamie Benn & Tyler Seguin

 

 

Jamie has this problem where he's head over heels, ass backwards, hardcore in love with his teammate. He defends himself by blaming it on Tyler really, because Tyler is nice and friendly and funny and he's grown so much since Boston, both on and off the ice, and he's not too hard on the eyes either and he treats his dogs like any loving parent would treat their children and Jamie is _not_ thinking about Tyler with kids, _no_ , not at all.

 

This situation presents Jamie with a number of problems. First of all, he didn't even know he was gay before Tyler came to the Stars and once he got over his initial Big Gay Freakout he slipped right into the „I'm gay and also a professional hockey player oh no“ Freakout. Then there's the whole thing with him being Tyler's captain which would make any sexual encounters probably feel a lot like sleeping with your boss. And also, Tyler's on his team, obviously, which means if they ever dated and broke up it would probably fuck with their team dynamic, maybe even their performance on the ice. Tyler is also his friend, which means, again, if they ever dated and broke up, they couldn't be friends anymore. Not like they are now. And also, the arguably biggest problem is, he doesn't even know if Tyler's into him.

 

Jordie has been unsurprisingly unhelpful so far. He was super supportive during the whole gay discovery part but just told Jamie to „grow a pair and bone his buddy“ when Jamie eventually told him about his feelings for Tyler.

 

All of this led to Jamie kind of distancing himself from Tyler, which earned him a lot of hurt looks and confused stares from Tyler and Jamie feels really bad about it. He doesn't really know what to do though, so.

 

Right now, Jamie's drinking beer while watching a football game and Jordie keeps flinging popcorn at him. There's a slow knock on the door and the brothers exchange a confused look, because really, no one but their mailman ever knocks. They rock-paper-scissors for who has to get up and answer the door and Jamie once more curses Jordie's frankly inhuman gift to win at rock-paper-scissors before getting up and dodging another popcorn.

 

When he finds Tyler standing in front of the door with puppy eyes, he feels his heart sink. „Wha-“

 

„What did I do?“

 

Jordie clears his throat in the background and Jamie throws a helpless look back at him. Jordie just shrugs, grabs the popcorn and walks to his room. „I'm gonna leave you guys to it.“

 

Jamie glares at him before turning back to Tyler and he's about 99% sure Tyler can tell how nervous he is.

 

Tyler just motions at the apartment over Jamie's shoulder. „Can I come in?“

 

Jamie steps aside and sighs internally before closing the door behind Tyler. „What's up?“

 

Tyler gives him a betrayed look. „You're ignoring me. You've been ignoring me for weeks now!“ Jamie opens his mouth to say something but Tyler just rambles on. „And I mean, if I'm annoying or if I did something wrong or whatever you can just tell me? Because I've been raking my brain and I don't think I did anything so.“ He trails off and looks at Jamie expectantly.

 

„Uhm.“ Jamie swallows hard. „You didn't do anything.“

 

„Then why are you being so weird?“

 

Jamie panics. „I have amnesia. Who are you?“

 

Tyler just raises an eyebrow. „Really?“

 

„Fine.“ Jamie is probably making the biggest mistake of his life right now. Even bigger than that time he tried to cut his own hair as a kid and gave himself a sideways mohawk. „I'm gay.“

 

Tyler's eyes widen in suprise. „Oh.“

 

„Yeah.“

 

„For you.“, Jamie blurts out. All or nothing, do or die, go big or go home, whatever else you say in these situations.

 

„What?“

 

Jamie just lifts a shoulder before dropping it again, gaze fixed on the floor between them. For a second he thinks Tyler's gonna laugh at him, maybe even hit him, or whatever. What he does not expect is Tyler letting out a slow chuckle and putting an arm on his shoulder. He looks up and he could swear Tyler is blushing.

 

„That's good news, Jameson. Apparently all the flirting I did paid off.“

 

„You were flirting with me?“ Tyler laughs again before pulling Jamie in for a kiss. „You're the worst flirter ever. Couldn't you have been more obvious?“

 

Tyler snorts. „Jordie said I have the subtlety of a car crash. Maybe you're just oblivious.“ Jamie thinks that, yeah, maybe, but he doesn't even really care right now, when Tyler kisses him again.


	15. Patrick Kane & Jonathan Toews

 

 

„I give it a year.“

 

„Fifty bucks says three months.“

 

„You're gonna kill each other in two weeks.“

 

This is so not what Pat and Jonny expected when they told the team they were dating. Of course they were glad their friends took it so easily. But after the initial whistles and hollers, Shawzy started taking bets on how long they'd last, Sharpy offered to make His & Hers t-shirts for them and Duncs and Seabs just gave them knowing looks while trying and failing to stealthily high five eachother.

 

„Guyssss“, Pat whined, „not cool!“ Jonny just linked their hands together and rolled his eyes at their team.

 

From then on, pretty much every team outing included at least one person asking if they were still dating and more often than not there were surprised faces when Jonny and Pat confirmed that they were indeed still pretty much in love with each other.

 

Now it's June, Pat and Jonny have been together for over four years, everyone's wearing their best suits and there's a huge crowd of wedding guests in Pat's Buffalo house's backyard.

 

Sharpy pulls Pat aside before the ceremony starts and pats him on the shoulder lightly. „Look, I know we probably shoulda believed in you guys more but-“, Pat swears Sharpy's eyes are kind of red rimmed, „we're really happy for you.“

 

Pat grins and looks over at where Jonny's going over something last minute with his mom. „Thanks.“

 

When the ceremony starts, Pat sneaks a quick glance away from Jonny to the guests and there isn't a single surprised face looking back at him.

 


	16. Alex Galchenyuk & Brendan Gallagher

 

 

When Nate got Brendan hooked on dumb scifi shows, Alex rolled his eyes and called them nerds.

 

When Nate and Brendan got him hooked on dumb scifi shows, Alex didn't know whether to hate or love them.

 

Nowadays, every single off day consists of them hanging out and watching everything from Star Trek to Firefly to Doctor Who. They just watched an episode about moving angel statues all draped over Brendan's obscenely huge fluffy rug and Nate is apparently extremely creeped out now.

 

„There's a fucking statue right outside my building how the fuck am I supposed to sleep at night?!“

 

Alex shrugs. „Looks like you're shit outta luck.“ He pauses before adding, „They are pretty creepy though.“

 

Brendan elbows him in the ribs and grins. „I'd stare at the creepy statues for you, Chucky.“

 

Nate makes a gagging noise and throws a pillow at Brendan. „What about me?“

 

„You, I don't care about. You never pay for my food and you're not my boyfriend.“ It still feels kind of weird to use the word boyfriend, but Brendan loves saying it. All the time to basically everyone. Alex secretly loves hearing it. He presses a kiss to Brendan's temple, who just turns his head to kiss him on the mouth.

 

Nate just groans. „You guys are disgusting I hope some fan sends you both one of those damn statues.“

 

Brendan laughs and throws the pillow back at him. „You're just jealous.“

 

„Whatever.“, Nate grumbles and grabs a different DVD from the coffee table. „Let's watch Fringe. And I do not want to hear about how you would save each other from a parallel universe.“

 


	17. Jake Gardiner & Morgan Rielly

 

 

„Oh fuck, not again.“

 

„What do you mean, again? How often do you get stuck in elevators?“ Jake raises his eyebrows at Morgan.

 

Morgan glares at him. „It only happened once and I was stuck in that thing for an hour, okay.“

 

Jake puts up his hands in surrender and presses the emergency button. „You're not like claustrophobic or anything right? Like the 'the air's running out, the walls are coming closer' kind?“

 

„No, I just don't want to be stuck in an elevator with you.“ Morgan is about to stick out his tongue at Jake but then decides not to and sighs. „I hope we don't miss the movie.“

 

„Told you we shoulda gotten tickets for the later showing!“, Jake sings with a smile.

 

Morgan rolls his eyes. „Yeah, yeah, whatever.“ A couple minutes pass by before he speaks up again. „Is anyone even gonna come and get us out of here?!“

 

Jake laughs. „You know what? This is just like seven minutes in heaven?“

 

Morgan squints at him. „What.“

 

„Seven minutes in heaven. I mean, yeah it's not a closet but still.“

 

Okay, that didn't explain anything at all. Morgan's confused, did he miss something? „Are you offering to make out with me until someone comes to get us out of here?“

 

Jake waggles his eyebrows and chuckles. „I mean we can obviously play truth or dare as well-“

 

„Oh my god.“

 

„Is that a yes?“


	18. Beau Bennett & Robert Bortuzzo

 

 

It's opening night at Beau's and Robert's friend Mike's new bar and the place is _packed_. They know virtually no one after Suttsy leaves because he claims he's had enough booze for a day and stay together at the small table in the back of the bar.

 

After a while, Robert rests his head on the table and groans. „This is so boring.“

 

Beau chuckles drunkenly and pats him on the back. „Are you not entertained?“

 

Robert sits up straight again and gives him a look. „Tell you what, let's steal some booze and make a run for it.“ Beau just laughs at him. „Dude, I'm serious.“

 

They look over at the bar where Mike gives them a little wave when he sees them staring.

 

Beau sighs. „Alright, deal. You steal the booze, I'll distract everyone.“

 

„I never said anything about a distraction-“

 

„Didn't have to.“ Beau gets up and motions him to get to the bar as he runs blindly into a group of young guys standing near the door. „Ohhhh my goooood, I'm so sorry! I'm such a klutz!“, Beau shouts across the bar, the guys giving him annoyed looks and a couple girls in the corner laughing.

 

Robert grins in Beau's direction and grabs the first two bottles he can reach, while the bartenders are busy mixing drinks or staring at the scene Beau caused.

 

„Again, so sorry!“, Beau shouts when Robert rushes over to him, hands him one of the bottles and drags him outside by his free hand, leaving a crowd of confused drinkers behind.

 

They run down the street laughing a little madly, hand in hand, probably more drunk than they thought they were earlier and sit down on the stairs to an apartment building at the end of the street.

 

Beau's laughter eventually gets quieter and quieter until he sighs and examines the bottle Robert handed him earlier. „Dude, champagne? Are you kidding me?“

 

Robert snorts. „Whatever, drink's a drink.“

 

Beau nods and grins. „Did you see my masterpiece of a performance though? Totally killed it.“ He pauses. „You know this wasn't really stealing, right? Mike said we drink for free.“

 

Robert just bumps his shoulder against Beau's, pops the cork on the champagne and clinks it against Beau's bottle, a big smile on his face. „So what? Cheers!“


	19. Jordie Benn & Jason Demers

 

 

„Chess. Really?“ Jordie gives Jason an incredulous look when he reaches his spot underneath a huge tree in the park. „You called me here to play chess.“

 

Jason drags him down on the grass by his hand and points excitedly at the chessboard. „Actually, I just called you to hang out. But I'm learning chess right now. And you should too.“

 

„Why exactly should I learn how to play chess?“

 

Jason shrugs. „It can be like, our couples thing. You know?“

 

Jordie raises his eyebrows. „Uh-huh. Right.“

 

Jason rolls his eyes. „C'mon, Jor. Why you gotta be like that? Black or white?“ Jordie sighs and points at the black figures. „Awesome. Okay, so. That means I'm starting, right?“

 

„Oh christ, how much do you actually know about chess?“

 

Jason raises an eyebrow and smiles at him. „Well, not that much yet. But I learn fast.“ He looks down at the board before looking back up at Jordie again. „Winner gets to decide whether we make out in the park or at home.“

 

Jordie laughs and makes his first move. „I have played chess before, you know?“

 

„Oh.“

 

Jordie winks and then proceeds to checkmate Jason in under two minutes. He quickly glances around them to find the park pretty much deserted, except for an old couple walking away from them and a teenaged girl on her phone walking her dog, and silently thanks the slightly overcast sky. He leans over to Jason and kisses him for a moment before pulling away grinning.

 

Jason lets out a small laugh and links their fingers together. „This is great, you know? Brainy is the new sexy and all.“ He looks down at his cemetary of fallen chess figures. When he looks at Jordie again, there's a mischievous glint in his eyes. „Maybe coming out here was a bad idea, we shoulda just played chess at home.“


	20. Michael Latta & Tom Wilson

 

 

Mike storms into the apartment with a bad mood. Extremely bad, judging by the way he flings his jacket on the counter with full force. Tom's sitting on the couch and gets up slowly to walk over to Mike who seems to want to press oranges with his bare hands right now.

 

„Heeeeeey, buddy. What's up?“, he tries and Mike just glares at him. He grabs another orange to the one he's already holding and opens cabinet after cabinet.

 

„Where's the fucking press thingy?“

 

Tom sighs and takes the oranges from Mike before wrapping him into a bear hug. „Alright, come on. What's going on?“

 

Mike sags a little against him and mumbles into his t-shirt when he speaks. „Mom's trying to set me up.“

 

Tom pulls away a little from Mike and looks at him. „You still haven't told her?“ Mike shrugs. „Look, it's been almost a year now. You have to tell her at some point, you know that, right? I'm right there with you.“

 

„She was all 'You have to think about your future, Michael!' and I just. I couldn't.“ Mike looks up at Tom with a defeated look in his eyes. „Sorry.“

 

Tom just hugs him tight again. „Hey, it's okay. We'll make a plan how to tell her, okay?“

 

Mike leans up to kiss him and smiles a little. „Thanks.“

 

„Of course.“ Tom smiles back and gives him another kiss before letting go and grabbing Mike's jacket, pushing it at Mike's chest. „Put this on, we're going for ice cream.“

 

Mike laughs. „Are you serious right now? Ice cream can't solve all your problems, despite what you might think.“

 

Tom shrugs. „I know. It does cheer you up, though.“


	21. Jamie Benn & Tyler Seguin

 

 

Tyler always feels weird when Jamie comes along when he walks his dogs. Not in a bad way, obviously. He just gets very... fuzzy inside.

 

The problem is that Cash and Marshall are basically his kids, right? But eventually, he can totally see himself living the family life. With daughters and sons and family picnics and birthday barbecqueues. And the only one he can picture beside him is Jamie. Which is of course something he would never ever say out loud around his teammates.

 

It's a sunny afternoon when they make their way through the park, and Tyler watches little kids play catch and mothers with strollers with a sort of ache in his chest. Jamie's currently talking to him about some tv show or maybe about something Jordie did or maybe even their game, he doesn't really know.

 

„Are you even listening to me?“, Jamie asks and stops walking, his voice amused rather than annoyed.

 

Tyler shakes his head. „Sorry, sorry, I just. Zoned out a little.“

 

Jamie shrugs and they walk on just to stop at a hot dog stand a few minutes later. There's a cart where a guy sells balloons next to them and just as Tyler looks over, a little girl lets go of her balloon accidentally and breaks out in tears as she watches it fly high into the sky.

 

„Oh no.“, Tyler blurts out and dashes over to her and her mom, leaving Jamie standing in front of a hot dog stand with two hot dogs in his hands and two actual dogs at his feet.

 

„Uhm, excuse me?“ The mother of the little girl looks at him with a little despair written across her face, the crying girl clinging to her feet. „I saw the uh. Whole thing with the balloon.“ The girl cries louder at the mere mention of her lost balloon. „Can I pay for a new one?“

 

The woman gives him a confused look and Tyler crouches down to talk to the girl. „Hey, little princess.“ The girl stops crying and looks at him, face red. „I'm Tyler, what's your name?“

 

The girl sniffles a little and rubs her eyes. „Lisa.“

 

Tyler smiles. „That's a lovely name, Lisa. You wanna tell me which balloon you had?“

 

Lisa's lower lip starts to tremble again as she points at one of the balloons. Tyler quickly pays the guy selling them and ties the new balloon around her wrist. „You gotta look out for this one, okay? Don't let it float off.“

 

Lisa looks kind of confused before breaking out into a smile and hugging Tyler, who stumbles a little. Lisa's mother clears her throat and looks down at them with an amused expression. „Lisa, what do we say to the generous young man?“

 

„Thank you!“

 

Tyler gives her another quick hug before standing up again. „Thank you.“, Lisa's mother repeats and smiles and Tyler waves her off with an „It's not a big deal, you're welcome.“, before going back over to Jamie, who had been watching the whole thing with a fond face.

 

„Dude, you started eating without me?“

 

Jamie chuckles and hands him the hot dog that's not half eaten. „Sorry.“ They eat in silence for a while before Jamie elbows him lightly in the side. „You're gonna be a good dad one day.“

 

Tyler's heart kind of skips a beat and when he turns to Jamie they both wear kind of dopey grins on their faces. „Yeah? So are you.“


	22. Alex Galchenyuk & Brendan Gallagher

 

 

„We're gonna prank the whole team.“, Brendan blurts out as soon as Alex closes the hotel door behind them.

 

„What the fuck?“

 

Brendan grins to himself as he flops down on one of the beds. „I said, we're gonna prank the whole team.“

 

Alex just gives him a look and shoves his suitcase under the free bed. „And I said, what the fuck?“ Brendan looks at him like he's frustrated by how dumb Alex acts and sighs heavily.

 

„It's been ages since anyone's pranked anyone so we're gonna prank the whole team, Chucky. Get with the program.“

 

„Subby was pranked like a week ago.“, Alex interjects.

 

That just earns him a shrug and a wide smile. „Yeah, like I said. It's been ages.“

 

Alex shakes his head at Brendan. „You know they're gonna come after us, right?“

 

Brendan nods and gets up just to lie down next to Alex on his bed a second later. „Yep.“

 

Alex snorts. „You're terrible.“

 

„I know. You love it, though.“, Brendan grins at him and yes, maybe he does.


	23. Beau Bennett & Robert Bortuzzo

 

 

One thing Robert learned early on was that, while Beau is usually all smiles, he gets kind of pissy when injured or sick. It always leads to Robert buying him truckloads of ice cream and them watching bad reality shows on their couch. Robert gets it, really. He gets the frustration and disappointment, but there's really not much else he can do than try to cheer Beau up. Beau's out with a wrist injury, and when Robert gets home from practice, he does a double take at the empty living room.

 

„Beau?“ He wanders through the apartment a little lost, ice cream in hand. „Sunshine? Where ya at, buddy?“ He shucks off his jacket and grabs two spoons from the kitchen before walking back out into the hallway.

 

„I'm here!“, a muffled voice comes from the bedroom and when Robert opens the door, he's greeted by a frankly enormous blanket fort.

 

Robert snorts and crouches down to the entrance to look at Beau lying in the dark, curled up in and around blankets and pillows. „A blanket fort? Really?“

 

Beau sits up as much as possible in the fort and glares at him. „Don't diss my awesome fort.“

 

Robert puts up his hands and remembers the ice cream. „Not dissing. I brought you Ben & Jerry's.“

 

Beau honestly makes grabby hands at it and Robert sighs as he kneels down and crawls into the fort, lying down next to Beau, both of them propped up on some pillows. Robert honestly wonders if Beau bought even more pillows than he did when they went shopping together. He must have. For a while, the only sound in the darkness is them eating their ice cream, until Beau speaks up again. „Thanks.“

 

„No big deal.“

 

Beau shakes his head with a small smile. „No, I mean. Seriously. Thanks.“ He pauses to eat another spoonful of ice cream. „It's nice to be able to be pissed off sometimes, you know. When no one can see.“

 

Robert gives him a look. „Oh, so I'm no one?“ He grins a little though.

 

„Nooo! I mean, like. You know.“

 

„Don't worry. I gotcha.“

 

Beau leans his head against Robert's shoulder and chuckles. „Best roomie ever.“

 

„Damn right.“

 


	24. Jake Gardiner & Morgan Rielly

 

 

Jake sits down next to Morgan with a heavy sigh. „I'm cursed, Mo.“

 

Morgan pauses the movie he was watching to look at Jake. „Why?“

 

„Got dumped. Again.“ Jake leans down with his head on the armrest and buries his toes under Morgan's thigh. „I swear I can't keep a girl, ever.“

 

He looks more frustrated with himself than upset over the breakup, now that Morgan really looks at him and something in Morgan's chest stings a little. „Oh well. I mean, you are horrible. Probably a cheap date too.“ Jake glares at him. „But they don't deserve you anyway.“, Morgan adds a little quieter.

 

„What?“

 

Morgan turns a little more to Jake and he's pretty sure he's blushing right now. „You deserve better.“

 

Jake sits up, suddenly very close to Morgan, their faces inches apart. „Oh yeah?“

 

„Yeah.“, Morgan breathes out and Jake has this weird expression on his face, daring, a mix between passion and determination, the way he often looks on the ice.

 

„Better, huh?“ Jake's eyes search Morgan's face for a moment before he smirks. „Like who?“

 

Morgan hesitates and Jake lets out an impatient groan before he surges forward to kiss him. When they break apart, Morgan kind of knows his face is probably red like a tomato.

 

Jake just smiles. „Maybe I don't need a _girl_ friend.“


	25. Michael Latta & Tom Wilson

 

 

„I think our apartment is haunted.“, Tom tells Mike by way of greeting when Mike comes back from lunch with some teammates. He's been sick for the past two days and as far as Mike can tell he hasn't left the couch for a second of it.

 

„And why would you think that?“ Apparently they've started forgoing hello's entirely. Mike would rather ram a hockey stick in his eye than admit out loud that he hates that Tom's kind of contagious because he really kind of misses the bearhugs. He sits down on the far end of the couch and Tom groans a little in frustration, then starts coughing up a storm right after.

 

When he can actually breathe normally again, he flails his arms around in the air a little. „Our apartment is haunted. Seriously. It is.“

 

Mike raises his eyebrows at him. „Did you marathon Ghost Whisperer again?“

 

Tom tries to glare at him but it falls a little flat, what with all his sniffling going on and how miserable he looks. „No. I keep hearing noises though. When you're not here. I mean. Some weird banging and clattering.“

 

„You're going stir crazy.“

 

„I'm serious, Latts!“

 

„Of course you are.“ Mike wraps Tom's blanket a little tighter around him. „Want me to make you soup?“

 

Tom huffs and pouts. „There's a ghost in here and you're thinking about soup!“

 

The doorbell rings just as Mike's about to point out all the possible reasons for mysterious noises and he gets up to open the door. Across from him stands a middle aged woman with a plate of cookies. „Hello! I'm Mary, I just wanted to introduce myself to the new neighbours, I moved in yesterday in the apartment above you. Sorry for the noise, we're almost done with the furniture.“

 

Mike suppresses a laugh and introduces himself and Tom. The woman pushes the plate with the cookies at him and quickly makes her goodbyes again to reassemble her last cabinets.

 

Mike closes the door and laughs out loud when he puts the plate with the cookies down on the coffee table in front of Tom who just stares at him like he's gone crazy.

 

„Our ghost is named Mary.“, Mike gets out between laughs and tries one of the cookies. „Bakes good cookies too.“


	26. Beau Bennett & Robert Bortuzzo

 

 

„Bortz?“

 

Robert flinches when he hears a familiar voice from behind him and almost drops his smoothie. He turns around to see Beau standing in front of him, two huge shopping bags in his hands.

 

„Dude, what are you doing here?“

 

Robert shrugs. „Could ask you the same thing.“

 

Beau sits down on the bench next to Robert. The mall is bustling with people, the chatter a static white noise around them. „Retail therapy.“ Robert throws him a look. „Don't judge.“

 

„Not judging.“ Robert pauses before adding. „You are secretly a teenaged girl though.“

 

That earns him a grin from Beau and he bumps his shoulder against Robert's. „Yeah, yeah, whatever. At least I don't hide out here drinking, what? Smoothies?“ He takes the cup from Robert and takes a sip. „That's actually a pretty good one.“

 

They're quiet for a moment before Robert sighs. „I come here after losses sometimes. You know. People-watching. It's a good distraction.“

 

„Hey! I thought watching bad action movies with me was your distraction!“

 

Robert laughs. „Maybe I get tired of your ugly mug.“

 

Beau sticks out his tongue at him and hands back the smoothie. „That's totally a lie. You think my face is cute.“

 

„Yeah, right.“ They laugh at each other for a moment before Beau stands up and holds a hand out to Robert.

 

„What, you gonna steal my smoothie now and buy new high heels?“, Robert asks and tightens his grip on the cup. Beau chuckles and drags him up off the bench by his free hand.

 

„Nah. Let's get something to eat.“ Robert rolls his eyes and is about to make a joke about Beau's apparent constantly empty stomach but Beau cuts him off before he can get a word out. „I want one of those smoothies too though, so. I mean, it looks like you don't really like it, you could always give it to me you know? So it won't go bad. People in Africa are starving.“

 

Robert lets out an exasperated sigh but smiles. „Fuck off, I'm not giving you my smoothie, Beau.“


	27. Alex Galchenyuk & Brendan Gallagher

 

 

Day 28. Brendan Gallagher is still in love with his best friend. All previous stages of Operation Fall Out Of Love have so far failed.

 

Which is why Brendan is sitting in a tiny coffeeshop a little outside of town on a rainy Monday afternoon doing this whole speed dating thing. It's all kind of awkward and every single person in the room is boring as hell, Brendan finds. And no one wants to talk about last night's episode of Game of Thrones with him.

 

This girl Jessica? Annie? Sarah? is telling him about her hobbies right now, but Brendan kind of zoned out after horse riding and shopping. He's startled when a guy that's no stranger to him enters the coffeeshop with his typical frown, hair dripping wet, shoving his phone into his pocket angrily. Alex showing up here is the last thing he needs right now.

 

Brendan instinctally sinks lower in his chair and his current date raises her eyebrows at him, but rambles on anyway. „So, as I was saying-“

 

„Bren?“, Alex asks when he walks past Brendan's table on his way to the counter. „What the fuck?“

 

Brendan turns around slowly and lamely waves at his teammate. „Alex! Hiiiiiii.“

 

The ding that signals the end of the date rings through the room and the girl sitting across from Brendan rolls her eyes and gets up. „Loser.“, she mutters under her breath and walks away from him. A short girl with long hair approaches their table but Alex sits down on the vacant seat and gives her an apologetic look. „Sorry. Taken.“

 

The girl looks confused for a second, then sighs. „Why are the cute ones always gay?“

  
Alex opens his mouth to protest. „Wha-“ The girl just smiles at them and takes off again. Alex turns back to Brendan and gives him a look. „Speed dating? Really?“ He grins. „I mean, I know you don't have game, but. Really?“

 

Brendan squawks. „I have plenty game, Galchenyuk. What are you doing here anyway?“

 

Alex ignores the first part of Brendan's response and gestures in the direction of the door. „Car broke down about a block away from here. There's a garage next door, so I wanted to get coffee while I wait for it to get fixed.“

 

Brendan nods and stares at the tabletop. „So. You could. Um. Get your coffee. And leave.“ The bell rings again.

 

When he looks back up at Alex, Alex looks a little hurt for a second before grinning. „I think I owe it to all these women to keep you away from them.“ Brendan glares at him. „You want a bagel? I'm gonna get a bagel.“, Alex asks when he fends off another girl on her way to their table.

 

Brendan sits at the table kind of dumbfound while Alex gets coffee and bagels for them. Alex sits back down and slides a coffee over to him. „I got cream cheese and your coffee should be how you always drink it.“

 

There's a moment where Brendan wants to chirp him, kiss him and scream all at once, but what he settles on is a snort and a wide grin. „Very domestic, Chucky.“ Alex just rolls his eyes at him. „Thanks.“, Brendan adds a little quieter.

 

Alex shrugs and takes a sip from his coffee. „So. Did you watch last night's episode of Game of Thrones?“


	28. Michael Latta & Tom Wilson

 

 

Mike's cat hates Tom. To clarify, it isn't even really Mike's cat. No one really knows who she belongs to, maybe she's a stray, and she stops by every couple of days for a day or two and hates absolutely everyone's guts. But especially Tom's. She adores Mike though, who calls her sweetheart and sugarcane and on one memorable occasion The Goddess of Pancakes, Thunder and Purring. It's a long story. It was fairly easy to keep out of her way when Tom moved in, because she usually hid in Mike's room and Tom didn't have to fear for scratches on his feet everytime he entered the living room. Now that Tom and Mike are dating, Tom's basically moved into Mike's room though. And guess who is absolutely not happy about that.

 

„I don't understand why she doesn't like you. I really don't. It's probably because you're a dog person. She's so cute, maybe you stepped on her tail once and now she holds a grudge?“, Mike tries to argue when the cat stops by one day.

 

„Latts, this fucking cat hates everyone. Everyone. She's pure evil.“

 

„She doesn't hate me.“, Mike grins and Tom sighs. Why did he have to date the biggest dork in town.

 

It should be noted that Tom tries really hard to win the cat over though. Mike occasionally watches as Tom approaches her with treats, slowly, like she's a tiger and not a tiny furball, all while talking in a voice that would be more appropriate if he was trying to calm down a raging grizzly bear. The first few times the cat was at their apartment when Tom slept in Mike's room had ended with the cat's claws in Tom's skin. Mike agreed to shut the bedroom door on her at night then, which only led to her crying in the hallway half the night, scratching at the door. She eventually stopped doing that, thankfully. One night, Mike and Tom curl up together in bed when Tom lets out a sigh. „Why does your cat hate me?“

 

Mike chuckles sleepily. „Maybe she's jealous.“

 

There's a long pause before Tom speaks again. „She didn't hiss at me today though. Maybe she's warming up to me?“

 

Mike smiles and presses a kiss against Tom's skin. „Maybe she is.“


	29. Jordie Benn & Jason Demers

 

„We need a code.“, Jason mumbled one day, lying next to Jordie in bed, his fingers tracing lazy circles on Jordie's chest.

 

„Why? What for?“

 

Jason just buried his face more into Jordie's neck and sighed. „We can't say it. Like in public. So we need a code.“

 

Jordie shifted a little so that they were face to face. „Say what?“ He knew what Jason meant. Of course he knew. But they'd never said it before. Not out loud. And he'd be damned if he was the first to give in.

 

After a long pause, Jason smiled at him. „I love you.“ He gave Jordie a kiss on the cheek and curled up against him again.

 

„I know.“ Jordie let out a laugh when Jason hit him playfully on the chest. „I love you too.“

 

Jason grinned at him. „So we need a code.“

 

That was the moment that triggered Jason into learning morse code, sign language and some sort of pseudo-KGB code for the next couple of weeks. Jordie comes home with him after an early morning practice once and laughs at the stacks of books on Jason's coffee table.

 

„You know there's such a thing called the internet right?“

 

Jason gives him a look. „Dude, I'm old school. Don't hate.“

 

Jordie shrugs. „I'm not gonna read a billion books to understand when you want to tell me that I'm your Prince Charming in public.“ He smirks at Jason who just rolls his eyes. „What about this?“ He gives Jason two light taps on the wrist and Jason looks down at their hands.

 

„Huh.“

 

Jordie raises an eyebrow. „What? That's good right?“

 

„Actually. Yeah. Yeah, why not.“ He kisses Jordie and laughs when they let go of each other. „Why couldn't you have thought of that earlier? I was just starting a book on the code russian spies use!“

 

Jordie just grins, taps his wrist and kisses him again.


	30. Michael Latta & Tom Wilson

 

 

„God damn, you look great!“ is the first thing Tom says when he opens the door to Mike's room to take him out on their first official date.

 

„I'm not dressed yet.“, Mike replies a little confused, because really. He's standing here in his sweatpants.

 

Tom shrugs and sits down on Mike's bed. „I don't care. I think you look great all the time.“ He's about 90% Mike is blushing as he raids his closet.

 

„So, do I have to get ready while you're watching me now?“

 

Tom smiles wide. „Give me a show, Latts.“

 

Mike throws him a look and fishes out a shirt from the back of the closet. „Doesn't that kind of ruin the surprise? Seeing your date getting ready for the actual date?“

 

„You're thinking about weddings, man.“

 

They eventually make it to a small pizzeria not far from the apartment and get seated at a small table in the back of the restaurant.

 

„You know“, Mike starts, chewing on a breadstick while Tom looks at him with a dopey grin. „You know, what you said earlier.“ He pauses. „About me looking great. That's what I thought when we first met.“

 

Tom looks confused. „You thought that you looked great?“

 

Mike shakes his head. „No! No.“ He gives Tom a shy look. „I thought you looked great.“

 

Tom beams. „Really?“

 

„Yeah.“ Mike puts down the breadstick. „Couldn't keep my eyes off you.“


	31. Beau Bennett & Robert Bortuzzo

 

 

On a particularly nice and sunny Saturday afternoon in late spring, just after they crashed out of the playoffs, someone suggests a picnic. No one's really sure who came up with the idea in the first place and most guys thought it was a joke at first, but now half the team and their families are camped out in the park.

 

Robert lets himself fall down next to where Beau is on his back on top of the picnic blanket.

 

„Brought you a burger.“ He ceremoniously places the plate loaded with fries and a burger on Beau's stomach and starts eating on his own meal. Beau sits up, crosses his legs and takes his sunglasses off to rub at his eyes before putting them back on again. „Thanks.“

 

„Did you sleep?“

 

Beau grins and shoves a couple fries into his mouth. „Nah, was just dozing. 's nice.“

 

Robert nods and they eat their food in silence until Geno comes over to them, a row of ice cream cones balanced in his hands. „Sid and I buy ice cream. Here.“ He hands two of the cones over to Beau who takes them gingerly and looks confused at all the food in front of him while Geno makes his way over to someone else.

 

„Uh.“

 

„I'd say eat the fries first because cold fries suck but then the ice cream would melt.“, Robert mumbles and takes his ice cream from Beau.

 

Beau smiles. „Fear not, Bortz, I have a plan.“ He takes some fries, dips them in the ice cream and lets out a loud moan when he pops them into his mouth. „Yeeeaaah, that's the shit.“

 

„That is wrong on so many levels.“, Robert states but tries it as well. „Oh damn. That's good.“

 

Beau grins. „Told ya.“ They lie down on their backs looking up at the clear blue sky after they finished eating and Beau lets out a content sigh. „I love spring.“


	32. Patrick Kane & Jonathan Toews

 

 

Jonny didn't really feel like going out so he just stayed for a beer or two after their win against Nashville and went straight back to the hotel. He was just about to fall asleep, some football game playing in the background, when a knock on his door startled him awake.

 

„Jonny! Tazer! LL Cool J!“ Pat was kind of shout-whispering through the door and Jonny rolled his eyes before opening it to find Pat swaying a little on his feet. „Hey!“

 

„Pat, it's late. Go to sleep.“ He was about to close the door on Pat but Pat just shoved his foot between the door and its frame.

 

„Nooo, lemme in!“ Jonny gave him a look. „Please?“

 

With a sigh, Jonny stepped aside and Pat stumbled into his room, almost knocking over the lamp on the dresser. „What are you doing here, Pat?“

 

Pat flopped down on Jonny's bed, gave the tv a quick glance and looked back at Jonny with a lopsided grin. „We should cuddle.“

 

„What?“

 

„You'n'me. Cuddling.“ It was quiet in the room for a moment before Pat spoke up again. „Take your clothes off.“

 

Jonny almost choked on air. „ _What_?!“

 

Pat sighed and patted the bed next to him. „Naked cuddlin'. 's the best.“

 

Jonny snorted. „You're drunk. C'mon, let's get you to your room.“ Pat honest to god pouted at him but eventually gave in and let Jonny drag him to his own room, telling him about the finer points of cuddling naked all the way to the door. Jonny pushed him over to his bed and went to get a glass of water. When he got back, Pat was out like a light.

 

The next morning, Jonny decided to give Pat an easy out and avoid awkwardness by not mentioning any of what happened last night. He was secretly hoping Pat had been so drunk he couldn't remember it now anyway. But when Pat joined the team for breakfast, he looked fresh like a daisy and sneaked looks at Jonny at every opportunity.

 

When everyone went up to their rooms to get their stuff, Pat stopped Jonny with a hand on his arm and waited for Crow, who was walking behind them to pass them by.

 

„I meant what I said last night, you know?“, Pat said in a hushed voice and smirked at Jonny, who felt a little like he just swallowed his tongue. He winked at Jonny and walked away, talking over his shoulder, „Just so you know.“


	33. Jake Gardiner & Morgan Rielly

 

 

Morgan didn't really expect coming home to find Jake sitting on the couch, a huge bowl of popcorn in his hands, looking like someone ran over a dog in front of him, but here he is.

 

„Don't be mad!“, he shouts as soon as Morgan enters the living room. „I mean. Hi.“

 

Morgan gives him a suspicious look. „What did you do?“

 

Jake sighs and puts the bowl of popcorn on the table. „I accidentally broke your Call of Duty disc and I'm so so _sorry_.“ He makes puppy eyes at Morgan. „Please don't be mad.“

 

„So what's this all about?“, Morgan asks, eyes narrowed at Jake and gestures at the popcorn.

 

„I thought. I thought maybe you would be super angry so I made popcorn for us and I'll let you pick a movie. Any movie. I don't care. Your choice.“

 

Morgan pretends to think about it for a minute with Jake getting increasingly nervous before he answers, „Fine.“

 

Jake breaks into a grin and scoots closer to Morgan when he sits down on the couch next to him.

 

They're halfway through some action movie Morgan's been wanting to watch for a while, when Morgan clears his throat and Jake looks up at him from where he's resting his head on Morgan's chest.

 

„You know that that wasn't even my game right? I borrowed it from Bozie and Phil.“

 

Jake's eyes widen. „Oh no.“

 

„Yep.“

 

„Do you think they like popcorn and movies as an apology?“


	34. Alex Galchenyuk & Brendan Gallagher

 

 

„Is there scheming going on here?“, Brendan asks when he enters the locker room to find Prusty and Alex sticking their heads together. „I want in.“

 

„You're not getting in.“, Prusty dismisses him and looks around the room to check who else followed him in.

 

Brendan whines and gives both of them a shove. „Come onnnn. I'm so good at scheming!“

 

Prusty turns to him again. „No, you suck at scheming. And you're not getting in on this.“

 

They have this weird kind of standoff for a moment before Brendan drapes himself over Alex and sing songs in a high pitched voice, „Aleeeeex. Alex, my best friend. My boy. Best player on the team. Can I get in?“

 

Alex stares at him. „No.“

 

Brendan crosses his arms over his chest and pouts. „If you don't let me in on this I'm gonna ruin it for you.“

 

Prusty and Alex exchange a look before sighing simultaneously. „Alright, fine. But you're not doing anything, okay?“, Prusty finally answers and Brendan nods enthusiastically. Apparently they're planning on pranking Pricey and PK and after numerous ideas such as filling their cars with foam, putting itching powder in their jockstraps and roofie-ing them to put them on a roof, hangover-style, Prusty actually comes up with a plan that involves a squid, three pounds of butter, vodka and a sombrero.

 

„That sounds kinda dangerous.“ Alex gives both Prusty and Brendan a doubtful look. „Maybe this was a bad idea.“

 

Prusty rolls his eyes and mutters, „Baby“, while Brendan beams at him. „It _is_ dangerous, Chucky. That's why it's awesome!“

 

Alex shrugs and sighs loudly. „Alright. Let's do it.“


	35. Jordie Benn & Jason Demers

 

 

Jordie remembers when he first met Jason, during warm-ups against the Sharks.

 

„Your hair looks terrible!“, Jason had shouted at him while skating by.

 

Jordie just snorted and replied, „Keep on skating, head up. Fans wouldn't want you to fall on your face, pretty boy.“

 

So when he found out Mr. Bad Chirps About The Flow got traded to Dallas he was equal parts annoyed and excited.

 

Jamie gave him his judgey look and ignored everything he had to say and was therefore a really bad brother.

 

When he actually really met Jason, he was having lunch with Jamie and Tyler, who had dragged the new guy along.

 

„Jordie, right?“, Jason asked, sticking his hand out to him over the table. „I remember the hair.“

 

Jordie raised his eyebrows but shook his hand. „That was ages ago.“

 

Jason shrugged and started flipping to the menu. „Flow so bad, you remember it forever.“

 

Tyler laughed next to him and roped Jamie into a conversation about the worst haircuts in the NHL while Jason grinned up at Jordie from the menu.

 

Jordie smiled despite himself and the waitress came over to take their order. After she left, Jordie leaned back in the booth and snorted. „Steak for the pretty boy, eh?“

 

Jason laughed. „Oh, man. Face so pretty, you remember it forever?“

 

They both kind of dissolved into laughs at that and only stopped when Jamie and Tyler kept elbowing them in the ribs to make them shut up.


End file.
